The business world is fickle and has a short memory. This is especially true in the world of business ideas. New tools and techniques are put to work and then taken for granted as they are incorporated into business life. The quest for novelty and differentiation means that curious business leaders move quickly onto the next big idea. This is reflected in the Thinkers50 Ranking, which is a barometer of the ideas and thinkers making an impact today.
This relentless curiosity is a good thing. But, it can mean that over time the names of those who originated the most innovative business ideas and inspired best practice are overlooked or forgotten. Through the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame we salute the distinguished thinkers whose contributions to management thinking have made it what it is today.
Every year we honour the contribution of a few individuals by inducting them into the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame. Their names and legacies are added to the ranks of those who have arrived here before them. All are distinguished thinkers who have all made a lasting and vital impact on how organisations are led and managed. They are the giants upon whose shoulders managers and leaders stand.
Thinkers50 Hall of Fame status is at the discretion of the Thinkers50 founders, Stuart Crainer and Des Dearlove, and their advisors. It is an honour given in recognition of an outstanding and exceptional contribution to management thinking over many years.
EVERY YEAR IN SEPTEMBER
Global professor of management and strategy at NYU Stern School of Business’ Management and Organizations Department, Pankaj Ghemawat leads the Center for the Globalization of Education and Management and is also the holder of Anselmo Rubiralta Chair of Strategy and Globalization at IESE Business School. His books include the award-winning World 3.0: Global Prosperity and How to Achieve It; The New Global Road Map: Enduring Strategies for Turbulent Times; The Laws of Globalization and Business Applications; Strategy and the Business Landscape; Redefining Global Strategy; Games Businesses Play; and Commitment. Pankaj also developed the DHL Global Connectedness Index, an annual globalization index that looks at the connectivity of more than 130 countries and serves as a comprehensive analysis of globalization and the rise of emerging markets.
One of the most highly respected experts in the fields of contemporary leadership development, Frances Hesselbein was a ferocious champion of inclusivity and diversity. She served as president and CEO of the Frances Hesselbein Leadership Forum at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public and International Affairs and as the transformative CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA. She was also head of the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management – later renamed the Frances Hesselbein Leadership Institute. Frances co-edited 27 books and is the author of Hesselbein on Leadership; My Life in Leadership; and Peter Drucker’s Five Most Important Questions: Enduring Wisdom for Today’s Leaders (with Peter Drucker and Joan Snyder Kuhl). She was the founding editor-in-chief of the award-winning quarterly journal, Leader to Leader.
Carol Kauffman is a Board Certified Clinical and Coaching psychologist at Harvard Medical School. Widely recognised as a pioneer who has integrated evidence-based research with executive practice, she established coaching as a discipline grounded in psychology, neuroscience, and leadership theory. Carol served as founding editor in Chief of Coaching: An International Journal of Research, Theory and Practice, the field’s first peer-reviewed academic journal with a major publishing house. In 2009 she was awarded $2 million to establish the Institute of Coaching, a community of over 30,000. She also launched the Annual Coaching in Leadership and Healthcare Conference at HMS. Carol’s extensive field experience as a leadership coach and senior leadership advisor at Egon Zehnder informed her recent book Real-Time Leadership with David Noble, a structured yet dynamic approach to leadership decisions under pressure.
Emeritus professor of strategic management at London South Bank University, Bruce Lloyd has published over 200 articles on a wide-range of strategy and futures-related issues, including leadership, organisational performance, wisdom, and knowledge management. With a background in chemical engineering, he spent over 20 years in industry and finance before joining the academic world to help establish the Management Centre at what is now London South Bank University. Bruce was the UK coordinator for The Millenium Project from 1999 to 2005. He received his MSc (Economics/MBA from London Business School in 1968 and has a PhD (by published work) for ‘The Future of Offices and Office Work: Implications for Organisational Strategy’. Bruce has undertaken over 30 interviews on leadership/management related issues for various journals.
Danica Purg is the founder and dean of IEDC-Bled School of Management, Slovenia, and the president of CEEMAN, the International Association for Management Development in Dynamic Societies. As a professor of leadership and effective management, Danica has been an innovator in management education, incorporating the arts and artistic processes and building an ethics component into the curriculum of management programs at IEDC. She is a frequent guest speaker at universities and international conferences around the world and author/co-author of several books and numerous articles on leadership and leadership development issues. Danica’s many national and international awards include the president of Slovenia’s Honorary Order of Freedom, the Slovenia Managers’ Association Lifetime Achievement Award 2015, and the French National Order of the Legion of Honour 2018.
Bob Sutton is an organisational psychologist and emeritus professor of management science and engineering at Stanford Engineering School. He is the co-founder and former co-director of the Center for Work, Technology and Organization, co-founder of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, and co-founder of the Stanford d.school. His award-winning books include The Knowing-Doing Gap and Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths & Total Nonsense (both with Jeffrey Pfeffer); Weird Ideas That Work; The No Asshole Rule; The Asshole Survival Guide; Good Boss, Bad Boss; Scaling Up Excellence and most recently, The Friction Project (both with Huggy Rao). Bob’s research has appeared in multiple media including The New York Times, The Times (London), Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, BBC, ABC, CNN and CNBC.
Thinkers50 Limited
The Studio
Highfield Lane
Wargrave RG10 8PZ
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Thinkers50 Limited
The Studio
Highfield Lane
Wargrave RG10 8PZ
United Kingdom
Thinkers50 Limited
The Studio
Highfield Lane
Wargrave RG10 8PZ
United Kingdom
Thinkers50 Limited has updated its Privacy Policy on 28 March 2024 with several amendments and additions to the previous version, to fully incorporate to the text information required by current applicable date protection regulation. Processing of the personal data of Thinkers50’s customers, potential customers and other stakeholders has not been changed essentially, but the texts have been clarified and amended to give more detailed information of the processing activities.
